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1.Water into Blood. The water in every river, pond, stream, pool, and container turned to blood. All fish and living things in the water died. This also shall happen during the great tribulation. Please recall that blood and water came out of the side of Jesus Christ when He was pierced by the spear to fulfill the prophecy. Water represents the Holy Spirit and also that which purifies. Blood represents the payment of sins and it also cleanses sin. There is life in blood. God hates the shedding of innocent blood, and in
Egypt as a forerunner to Revelation, God gave the Egyptians who shed innocent blood that same blood to drink. Lasted 7 days.

2.Frogs. They came from the water that had been blood. During the great tribulation, 3 unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet to deceive and lure the nations into Armageddon. They covered the whole land, died, and stank. It is a metaphor for how the sins of cruelty, violence, idolatry, sexual perversion, murder of innocents, etc. covered the whole land, corrupted and polluted the land before God so that it stank before His nostrils. God turned His face away from the stench, rejected it, judged it, and punished the land. Recall that when Jesus Christ took on sin, God also could not look upon Christ because the corruption is a stench. So God turned His face from the sin that Christ took on, judged it, and punished it with the Blood of Jesus Christ.

3.Lice. Lice is a pest that bites and sucks blood, tormenting you, and there were so many that they covered the land like dust. When a nation sins against God, God judges it by allowing the torment of the sin, the tormentors (demons), and the punishment of sin vex and punish the land and the people. As the sin is pervasive in the land, so shall the punishment be. At this stage the purpose of the judgment and torment is not to destroy, but to cause people to acknowledge God and repent of their sins so that they can be reconciled with God and freed of their torment.

4.Flies. One of the names for Satan, Beelzebub, means “lord of the flies”, and in the gospels the enemies of Jesus Christ used that name when they accused Jesus Christ of being an agent of Satan. Flies always represent corruption, defilement, that which is both utterly vile and also tormenting; the nature of sin. They bring disease and contaminate everything that they touch, and the contamination spreads. It is a higher level of contamination and torment than frogs and lice, and judgment progresses to that state as the result of the heart that hardens and refuses to repent despite God’s bringing righteous judgment and punishment on one hand but being merciful and offering repentance on the other. Whereas frogs and lice may merely represent sin, flies represent the hard – hearted rebellious sinner who has been warned but refuses to change.

5.Death of cattle. The first plague can be considered a precursor. The next three plagues represented sin, what sin looks like to God and how it affects the body, spirit, and peace of men, and a warning of what will happen if one ignores that God is sending the plagues as a judgment and warning and does not repent. So, this is the first plague that showed that the wages of sin was death. Further, as cattle have significant economic value and are a valued food item, this shows that poverty, dearth, and hunger are caused by recalcitrant sin. Yet other economic/food items were spared and no men had died, showing that God at this stage was still being merciful and offering a chance to repent.

6.Boils. They came from ashes in a furnace; ashes are what is left over from what is consumed in a fire by God’s wrath. The judgment of boils also happens during the great tribulation, and ashes is a frequently used allegory/metaphor in the Bible. Now what had been consumed by God’s fiery wrath? Perhaps sin and the works of sin; perhaps that mercy which had been restraining God’s Hand against them. Like the first plague, this was a sign of worse things to come; of God dealing with them differently than before.

7.Hail mingled with fire (thunder/lightning). This punishment comes from the sky/heaven/firmament. Ice = water (Holy Spirit) hardened just as the hearts of sinful men harden to God’s informing them that their conduct is wrong and warning them of punishment: they are judged by something cold and hard just like their hearts. The fire (thunder/lightning) represent the terror of God’s wrath. Egyptians were warned to stay inside and put their cattle inside, showing that even at this stage God was still extending the hand of mercy and offering a chance at salvation to some. Many did not heed the battle, and as a result not only were more livestock destroyed (along with a great deal of but not all of the crops, indicating still more mercy and the hand of forgiveness and some restraint being shown) meaning still more economic loss/poverty/scarcity/hunger as the result of sin, but for the first time men died as a result of sin. Note that the first judgment to bring death was the 7th one, the number of completion, noting that the period of sparing all the lives of those who refuse to repent and acknowledge the righteousness, power, authority, sovereignty, love, and mercy of God had ended. This time, a man had to actually obey God in order to be saved. Also happens during great tribulation.

8.Locusts. Utterly destroyed all green life, including the rest of the crops, leaving
Egypt completely without food and totally bankrupt, bringing economic ruin and famine; the result of longtime sin. A similar plague happens during great tribulation. The locusts came in with the east wind (the direction of Babylon, showing that the source of the destruction was their following Satan and rejecting God with their sin and refusal to repent even after being judged), and left with the west wind (the direction of Jerusalem, which points to God and righteousness, forgiveness of sin, mercy, and cleansing). Because the locusts were removed by the west wind, even at this desperate point any who called upon the Lord and repented of their sins would have been saved and reconciled with God even though they may still lose their earthly lives (as in the great tribulation).

9.Darkness. This plague also happens during the great tribulationgbn. It represents separation from God and the lack of the presence of God as a result of sin. It is a forerunner of things to come, which is death and the final death. Hell = darkness; the first death that precedes the second death.

10.Death of firstborn. Remember that God says that the firstborn is His; it represents the spirit of man. Thus, the death of the firstborn all over
Egypt was a physical representation of the second death. God was clearly using physical Egypt to symbolize the sin condition, showing how sinners are going to be warned and punished but yet shown mercy until darkness (the first death, whether a sinner naturally dies or lives in a reprobate condition) followed by final judgment and the second death; destruction in the lake of fire; the final result of sin and the fate of all sin and sinners unreconciled with God by Jesus Christ. Meanwhile,
Israel symbolized the redeemed condition, those reconciled with God through Christ. Christ is sacrificed to pay the debt of sin, and all who obey God, repent, eat the flesh of the lamb (Christ) are marked with Christ’s Blood and thereby are spared from the second death despite their sins. People will also be marked during the great tribulation and will be spared physical death during that time as well as being spared spiritual death. Just as all the other plagues led up to the final one as a result of the sin and refusal to repent and acknowledge God, all sin unrepented through Christ will lead to the second death. Now in each house, either the firstborn died or the lamb died. The house represents an individual person, whose physical body “contains” a spirit man. Reject Christ, and “the firstborn”, that which is owned by God, the spirit man (which was “born” before your existence as a human in the natural world because God created the spirit man first), dies in the lake of fire for the sins of the person. Accept Christ, and Christ’s death pays the price for the sins of the person and the spirit of man lives, with God. Either way, the sins of the person is paid for by death.

So, we see that the plagues upon
Egypt not only are a foreshadow of the judgment of the entire world during the great tribulation, but they also symbolize what will happen to each individual sinner.
Egypt represents sin and the sinner symbolically. Israel symbolically represents he who was in
Egypt (sin) but came out of it into redemption solely by trusting salvation through God (Jesus Christ). Meanwhile, everyone else remains
Egypt, and the plagues represent the progression of warnings and partial punishments (increasing in severity) both upon individuals and upon lands until all the chances run out and death and destruction result. We see from this both how merciful and loving God is (from all of the warnings that sinners get and all of the mercy and restraint shown) to how righteous God is. Please note that the first born died in EVERYONE’S house, from Pharoah to the non – Hebrew slaves. Now that shows how God is neither a respecter of persons or of sins. The high and mighty will be brought down low, bow before God’s Christ, and be cast into the lake of fire just as the common person will be. More to the point, God will not allow a person’s station in life to be used as an excuse for not accepting Christ! And this is also true of sin itself. God will not tremble before and let pass or only partially destroy monstrous sin like the murder of innocents; it will be judged and destroyed along with those who commit it. And God will also not shrug and let slip by “white lies”, “gossip”, or even the sin that exists in a man’s heart that is never acted on (i.e. a person who carries hate or fantasies of violence against another, or those who lust). Whether it is Adolph Hitler or the virtuous minister who dedicated his life to Christian service but never allowed Christ to cover his sin of gluttony, both sin and sinner will be forever destroyed in the lake of fire. So do not believe the increasingly popular “ethics/values based” Christian doctrines and theologies that teach that those who commit violence and oppression (especially against minorities and the poor) will be punished but when it comes to “merely” personal behavior that “doesn’t hurt anyone else” that “God will allow it because ‘we are all sinners saved by grace’.” What God will not allow but REQUIRE that all sin and unredeemed sinners – including the pastors who preach this heresy and never repent – be destroyed in the lake of fire because of His Righteousness that requires that He reject all sin and sinners AND that He judge fairly without respect to persons. After all, why would God spare someone with a weakness for “behavioral sin that doesn’t hurt anyone else” while condemning someone with a weakness for power, greed, or violence? The same Adam nature causes both, and repentance and salvation from that Adam nature comes the same way as and is just as easy for the whoremonger as the warmonger, so why should God have any respect for one over the other?